5 Ways You Can Bond with Your Newborn During Quarantine

COVID-19 has changed things in Austin and beyond. There’s no telling when everything will go back to normal, so you have to figure out how to be a parent to your newborn. The following are five things you can do to bond with your newborn during quarantine.

1. Skin-to-Skin Activities

One thing you can do to bond with your newborn during quarantine is skin-to-skin activities. Allowing your baby to feel your skin is soothing, and it helps your baby feel closer to you. This also allows both of you to smell each other. It may not sound like much, but you and your child give off a scent that helps you build a strong bond.

During quarantine, this is going to be a relatively easy thing to accomplish, but you can try a few activities that could help. For example, you can look for positions to hold your baby in online. For example, Silver Bee Photography who does newborn photography in Austin has a great selection of pictures to reference for practicing positions to have your baby in with skin to skin contact. Looking for references online is a great way to find perfect ways to provide skin to skin contact throughout the day.

2. Communication is Golden

While you are in quarantine, you can also do your best to make communication a priority. Your baby cannot understand you, but that doesn’t mean communicating with your baby isn’t important. You have to do your best to talk to your baby and to be as expressive as you can so that your baby can see your expressions.

It is important to make eye contact while you are talking to your child. In the beginning, you might have some difficulty talking to your little bundle of joy, but be patient with yourself. Quarantine is giving you time to get used to talking to your baby, so use it.

3. Doing the Back and Forth

Your baby needs to feel like you react to him or her. Communication involves at least two people responding to each other. This is something you can achieve with your baby, and it’ll help you bond with each other. Of course, your baby can only coo and may smile at some point.

These are the tools your baby uses, and you can use these tools to communicate with your child. When your baby coos, go ahead and respond with your own; every so often, initiate the coo and wait until your baby responds. Smile when your baby smiles at you, and initiate the smile every so often as well. Your baby will get better. Just give him or her some time.

4. Get to Playing

Games are important for your baby right now, and you can play all day long with your newborn during quarantine. All of this heavy interaction with your baby should help you feel good, and it should help your baby feel more connected to you. There are a lot of games you can play, from classics like peek-a-boo to just singing a song.

Of course, you also need to make sure you include games meant to teach your baby something. Newborns experience a lot through touch, so focus on games that’ll help your child with that. For example, you can tickle your child in different places around the body. You could also have your baby touch different surfaces so that he or she experiences new things every day with you.

5. Feeding is Sacred

Okay, feeding is not sacred in any magical way, yet it is pretty special. This is a time where your baby learns you are his or her caretaker. Your baby is getting nourishment from you, which allows your child to bond with you. Make sure every time you feed your child that you hold your baby as close as you can.

On top of that, you also have to make an effort to lock eyes with your baby and talk soothingly. Those who are breastfeeding are going to experience a bonus: oxytocin. This hormone is released during breastfeeding and encourages bonding, which is going to go a long way towards establishing a loving relationship between you two.

These are just some things you can do with your baby at home as you try to fight this pandemic and bond with your baby. Try some or all of these things during this quarantine.